A Dundee woman is accused of selling sick, dying puppies online, and one woman says she paid thousands in veterinary bills after realizing she was scammed.
Jessica Halmaghi said her golden retriever named Presley was sick when he was bought from a woman who is now facing charges. She paid about $4,000 in veterinary bills.
Vanessa Young, 39, has been charged in connection with a fraudulent dog sale scheme.
Halmaghi said she bought Presley from Young for $800 in December 2016 after seeing an ad on hoobly.com.
She says Young claimed to have taken great care of Presley, but she immediately noticed health problems once she bought him.
Halmaghi said the veterinary papers that were given to her and other victims were fake.
“I called the vet on the papers and they said they never seen my dog. They never saw his litter from when it said his birthday was," she said.
And Halmaghi is not alone. Last September, a St. Clair Shores woman talked to 7 Action News, claiming Young had sold her a sick puppy, too.
Between the sale and vet bills, that victim spent about $1,500 for her dog.
After a yearlong investigation, Dundee Police arrested Young for the scheme involving at least 12 puppies.
A victim from Ann Arbor said she spent $800 to purchase a puppy named Lila in October 2016. After thousands of dollars in vet bills, Lila died by May of the following year.
The victims claim that after selling the dogs, Young would vanish, changing her phone numbers and usernames, only to continue scamming others.
"She hurt a lot of families doing what she did and if she feels no remorse I definitely think that she should deal with the highest consequences," Halmaghi said.
Young is now facing charges that could land her behind bars for up to five years.
